Lost Evidence
by Falconwolf3
Summary: Delko and Calleigh lose their evidence in court, so how will they prove their guy is guilty. Will they find the evidence they need in time? What happens when Ryan shows evidence that they are both wrong? Reviews Needed!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own CSI, if only I did.**

**This was originally a one-shot, but it got only one review, so I took it down and rewrote it, hope you guys like it. **

**Evidence**

Calliegh stood at the window gazing out at the sun as it went behind the clouds. It kind of depicted her mood for the day, dreary and angry. She looked down the hall to see an even angrier Delco come slamming through it. "I take it court didn't go your way today, either."

"Calliegh, no offense to your dad but lawyers suck!"

"On most days my dad would agree with you. So what happened to you?"

"That lawyer for David Roster got my wheel treads and Valera's DNA thrown out."

"What! Eric!"

"Yeah, I can't believe it, he may walk after all. But at least we have your ballistics report."

"Not exactly," said Calliegh under her breath.

"What do you mean, not exactly?"

"My evidence got trashed too."

They both silently stared at each other and then turned their gazes to the clouds forming outside.

David Roster was accused of murdering his wife after finding her in bed with a mystery man. He supposedly stabbed her 11 times with an ice pick, and then put a bullet in her head for good measure. The only evidence found at the scene was the ice pick with the victim DNA on it, the bed sheets where semen from two guys were found, one was the husband, the other unknown. The only prints found in the bedroom were those from the wife and the husband.

David claimed he was at a bar when his wife was brutally murdered, but there were no witnesses.

Eric Delco and Calliegh Duquesne were able, thanks to Valera, to find epithelia's belonging to the husband on the ice pick. There were tire treads outside the house, from a Ford F-150 truck, the same truck as the husband.

"How is this possible?" asked Calliegh. "How did the District Attorney get all of our evidence thrown out? We handed her an air tight case. What did the defense do to trip you up?"

"She tricked me, all right to be fair; it was a valid question, but still..."

"What did she ask you?"

"If it was possible the husband parked his truck in front of his own home."

"Good question."

"Yeah, and she used the same argument for the DNA on the ice pick."

"So we have nothing."

"Exactly, we need to go back to the evidence, maybe we missed something. Calliegh my gut tells me he did it."

"My gut says the same. Ok, I'll run the ballistics again, maybe I missed something there."

"But it got thrown out Calliegh, you can't use it."

"I can if I tie it to something else, then I can piggyback it in."

"Ok then, I'll see if Valera can get any DNA off the gum we found at the scene."

"Ok, let's go get our man."

* * *

Horatio Caine stepped out of his Hummer and walked toward Detective Frank Tripp. "What have we got here Frank?"

"Dead body inside that house there, Alex is in there now."

"All right, thank you Frank. What do we know so far?"

"Victim was stabbed to death, male, no I.D. on him. We're checking to see who owns the house now."

"All right, let me know when you find out something, I'm going to see what Alex can tell me."

XXXX

"Alex, what do we have?"

"Adult male, approximate age 34 to 40 years old. From looking at him, I can tell you he died painfully. He was stabbed at least 20 separate times. He took blows to the upper torso, abdomen, arms, legs, this poor boy was slaughtered Horatio."

"Time of death?"

"I'll know more when I get him back to the lab, but from the smell I say he's been here for at least one week, maybe more. I'll get the results to you as soon as I can."

"Thank you Alex," said Horatio as he moved aside to allow the stretcher to be brought in.

Ryan walked in after the stretcher, "Hold up!"

"What is it Ryan?" asked Alex.

"I haven't taken pictures of the body yet."

Horatio turned, "You what? Did you just get here?"

"Yeah, Delco needed me to run some information. I got here as fast as I could. I'm sorry, I should have come faster."

"We'll talk about this later, for now just take the pictures. This case is already cold, time isn't on our side."

"I'll take them as fast as I can, Alex, sorry to make you wait."

"Don't apologize to me baby, he's the victim," said Alex as she crossed the room and walked out the door.

Ryan got busy snapping photographs of the body, after about 5 minutes he signaled for the paramedics to load the body on the stretcher and let them leave.

He then walked around the room and rest of the house snapping photos of things he deemed evidence. He knew he had to photograph before he could bag any of it for testing back at the lab.

Horatio came into the room where Ryan was collecting evidence, "You mind telling me what evidence Delco had you running?"

"His evidence got thrown out in court this morning, so he asked me to rerun some of his samples. I didn't find anything yet that would help him though. Some of the tests actually show the opposite."

"What do you mean?"

"From the evidence it appears the Defense has every right to want everything thrown out. There is not a smoking gun piece of evidence."

"Are you saying that Eric has the wrong man?"

"I'm saying it's quite possible."

**TBC…please review! I'm honestly begging, lol.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the T-shirt.**

**Thanks for all the reviews. I appreciate every single one.**

**Chapter 2**

Calliegh was getting ready to fire the gun involved in the murder of Trisha Roster. She looked at the gun lying on the table in front of her, and put on her gloves, along with her safety goggles, picked up the weapon. Pointing it toward the target in front of her, she fired off three rounds. She lowered the gun and placed in back on the table, taking off her safety goggles. She walked around the Flexi-glass station and walked to the wall where her target was. She took out the tweezers from her kit, and pulled the slugs from the wall.

She then took all three bullets over to the magnifier, and took the slug Alexx pulled out of Trisha Roster's brain, and tried to match the striations. She got a big grin on her face when it came up a perfect match. She typed the serial number into the computer database. The screen flashed:

**Serial Number: 3014820**

**Gun used in one other homicide, in 1997.**

**Victim: Marsha Roster**

**No suspects in this case. Unsolved. Cold Case.**

Calliegh picked her cell phone out of her pocket, "Hey Eric, I've got something. My gun was used in another murder in 1997, a Marsha Roster."

"Why didn't we have that report before now?"

"Not sure, because I know I checked the serial number in the database, actually I had Mike do it; he said it didn't have any information in our system. I just took for granted he did it right."

"Get Ryan to check it out and see who she is, she must be somehow related to our suspect."

"Will do; let you know what he finds. Have you gotten anything yet?"

"Yeah the DNA on the gum came back to the wife and an unknown donor."

"How did that happen?"

"My guess she chewed gum after oral sex, because it was semen DNA from the male unknown."

"Oh, eww, all right have we found out who the mystery man is yet?"

"No, but we got a clue, DNA has 7 epithelia's in common with David Roster."

"A brother."

"Exactly. I'll run with this, call you when I have something."

"Okay."

* * *

Eric turned to Valera, "I have to find out how many brothers this guy has."

"He has one according to his military record," said Valera as she turned the screen where he could see it.

"Thanks Valera."

"No problem."

* * *

Horatio and Ryan walked into the lab. Ryan walked over to Valera and handed her the blood evidence from the crime scene, "When you get a chance, run this for me. We have a John Doe in the morgue, maybe he's in the system."

"Well if he is we'll find him, let me run it real quick."

"Mr. Wolf, come join me in my office, Delko find Calliegh and join us please."

"What's this about?"

"Just do it, I'll explain when you get there," said Horatio as he left the lab followed by Ryan.

* * *

Calliegh and Eric walked into Horatio's office, "What's up H?" asked Delko.

"I understand you evidence got tossed at trial this morning."

"Yeah, but we got some promising leads, we can still nail this guy."

"Delko's right…"

"Wolf, please tell them what you told me," said Horatio.

"I hate this… I looked over the evidence you gave me this morning Delko. I think your guy might be innocent."

"What the..."

"Wait, hear me out! I'm not trying to step on your toes, but your evidence, the way it stands right now, does not say he did it."

"Ryan, he guilty, I know he is!"

"But the evidence…"

"What evidence Ryan? What evidence?"

"DNA puts another person in the bedroom with Mrs. Roster."

"We know, there is a mystery semen sample, but the husband admits knowing about an affair."

"There are actually two mystery DNA samples, one from the gum you lifted from the Vic's mouth. The other was in the bathroom; Calliegh collected it off the toilet rim."

"I thought it was the same guy," said Calliegh.

"Right, you two assumed it was the same, but Valera didn't get around to checking it until this morning. Once her DNA got tossed, she came back, went through the evidence again, and found it. Apparently it got laid aside and forgotten."

"If the defense fines out about this before we get more evidence, we're screwed."

"They will move for a dismissal of all charges and we can't touch him after that, unless we have solid evidence. We need to find more evidence and fast," said Calliegh, "because he's about to be found innocent and we know he isn't."

There was sound coming from the door, "Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you would want to know," said Valera. "Eric, I found your mystery sperm donor, well one of them."

"Great, where is he?"

"In the morgue, the victim in Horatio's case is your guy."

"What happened to him?" asked Calliegh.

"He was stabbed to death," said Horatio, "we need to connect the two crimes and we'll have our guy. But if Mr. Roster is innocent, you two have to let this go."

"He's not innocent H."

"Prove it."

**TBC…**


	3. Chapter 3

**I am so sorry for the delay in updating this. I'm a college student and I didn't get a summer break. Instead I got one week off, so I'm trying to update and finish everything I can. I will do my best to finish this before the end of the week.**

**Still don't own CSI: Miami **

**Chapter 3:**

Horatio Caine walked into the lab and went straight to Delko, "Have you had the paper analyzed yet?"

"The paper that was found in Trisha's mouth was basic notebook paper H."

"Good to know, you know where David works?" he asked already knowing the answer.

"Where?"

"A paper company, in fact his company makes MEAD notebook paper. Go to the house; find the notebook it belongs to."

"I'll get right on it."

"And while you're doing that, I'll pay our DA a visit. See why she let the ballistics get tossed. There was no reason for it."

"Hey, H, where's Ryan?"

"In the morgue, getting the autopsy report from Alexx. Our John Doe was a Michael Smyth; Calleigh is running the name now."

"All right, I'll head over to Roster's office and find the paper he used in the murder."

**XXXXX**

Detective Tripp walked into the ballistics lab where Calleigh was. "You called?"

"Yeah, you had a case in 1997, the murder of a Marsha Roster, do you remember it?"

"Do I ever, that woman was stabbed and shot, we never recovered the gun, or the weapon used to stab her."

"I had Alexx send me the autopsy photos, you see these wounds?" She pointed at the small ball-point pen size holes. "I think they were made by an ice pick, and I know for sure that gun right there, is the gun used to shoot her."

"So who owns it?"

"I can't tell you that yet, I need to ask if you had any suspects back then."

"Yeah one, the woman's husband, Dan... Oh no, David Roster."

"That's all I needed to hear, it's his gun," she turned the flat-screen monitor for him to see.

"He's killed two wives," said Tripp, he had to admit, some of the things he saw people do to each other were sickening, and still shocked him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of Tums, and popped one in his mouth, "Heartburn, I had a piece of the famous pumpkin pie at Kelly's Dinner."

"Worth it?"

"Yeah, it was. I'll go arrest David Roster again, this time for the murder of both women."

"Thanks Frank."

**XXXX**

"Alexx are you sure?" asked Ryan.

"Yes, there is no doubt about it."

"But this is impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible Ryan, but I admit this does seem weird."

"According to this report, Michael Smyth was dead one week before the murder of Trisha Roster, so how did his DNA get in the victim's mouth?"

"Ryan, maybe it wasn't her gum."

"You mean the killer left it? Wait that would explain everything!"

"What do you mean?"

"Valera told me that Trisha's DNA wasn't on the gum. The killer kissed her after killing her and lost his gum!"

"So you get Valera to rerun the gum and pray for a miracle?"

"No, I need a swab off Trisha's lips."

"I'll pull her body out of the crypt for you."

"Thanks."

**XXXX**

Horatio walked into the DA's office, she looked up and smiled slightly when she saw him, "Morning Horatio, what brings you by?"

"The Roster case, I wanted to know how you let the ballistics report get tossed."

She frowned; he wanted to talk business instead of about them. They had broken up weeks ago, but she still loved him. "I fought for it, but the defense said the lab results were tainted. The report for chain of custody was missing Horatio."

"You lost it then, because I sealed it myself and I know it was there when I sent it to this office."

"That isn't possible, let me get the file, you can see for yourself."

She got up and walked over to her file cabinet. She fumbled through the files until she found what she was looking for. She walked over and handed the file to Horatio, as she sat back down. She leaned back smugly and glared up at him.

He turned the pages, "You are either stupid or blind."

"What?"

Horatio turned the file around and laid it on her desk. Staring back at her was the Chain of Custody form. He walked out of the office; he knew he had made his point.

**TBC…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Calleigh and Delko waited in Horatio's office for him to return. They knew they finally had their proof of David Roster's Guilt.

Horatio walked in followed by Ryan, "Ryan, are you sure?"

"Yes, Horatio, I am positive."

"All right, tell Frank to release Roster from lock-up."

"What?" asked Delko. "H, we have proof he's guilty!"

"What proof?" asked Ryan.

"Calleigh matched the gun used to kill Marsha Roster to Davis Roster. She was also killed using a ice pick, just like Trisha."

"Horatio, I think I know what happened," said Ryan. "I'm right that he didn't kill Trisha, but I think they're also right that he did in fact kill Marsha."

"Explain Mr. Wolf."

"Ok Valera was able to get a DNA profile off the gum found in Trisha's mouth. It wasn't hers, it belonged to her killer. He lost it when he kissed her. All right, the DNA came back to Robert Smyth, Michael Smyth's older brother.. He is also the brother of Marsha Roster. I think he killed Trisha in order to reopen his sisters murder case. "

"That would make sense," said Calleigh.

"Where is Robert Smyth?" asked Delko.

"Being brought in as we speak," said Ryan. "I was just telling Horatio what I found. I admit I couldn't figure out the clues until Delko mentioned Marsha Roster. I remembered coming across that name in my preliminary findings."

"So we got our man?" asked Calleigh."

"Yes we do," said Horatio. "Leave David Roster in jail Mr. Wolf. We have enough evidence to prove his guilt in the murder of Marsha Roster."

"It is good thing murder doesn't have a statute of limitations," said Delko.

"Yes, it is Eric, cause then very few people would get any justice."

"They would have to be like Robert Smyth and take justice into their own hands."

**THE END!**

**Thanks for reading !**


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